The new Era: Salamander
by RenegadeNinja
Summary: On the isle of truth, A DF user brings Ace back, but if people find out that Ace is alive it would only cause more trouble. It's Kora's job to reinvent his life and guide him on his adventure in the new Era. Ace OC.-also on hiatus
1. Chapter 1

**1. You poor fool**

Someone knocked on my door.

Way too early in the morning.

"what!" I yelled a little crabbily.

"Maddock wants you, he's in the healing house."

And they disappeared.

Ha! I didn't even have to open my door.

I sat there and thought for a moment.

"nope, I ain't gonna get dressed. Too much effort."

So I went to the healing house as I was, tank top and PJ shorts.

I knocked on the door and entered.

"yeah?"

And then I looked inside.

At the body.

Of the recently executed Portgas D. Ace.

You know, as in the recently dead Portgas D. Ace.

Only the hole that was in the middle of the body is gone.

"he's living, just barely. It is hard to reject death, and only possible if they have the will to be brought back to this world." Maddock sighed.

Maddock ate the reject reject fruit, its ability: to reject any recent event within a concentrated area. For instance how he rejected the event that had killed Ace, but he had only rejected the death wound, the other wounds at that time still remained.

And there were a lot of them.

"he looks like a mummy, why'd you bring him back?"

"a favor to old Whitebeard, Ace is the one son he raised for the future. He had other 'sons' under his protection, in his 'family' but Ace, Ace was the one he chose."

"so why me of all people?"

"I want you to teach him his gift, fire."

"you want e to give him the truth of fire?"

"yes."

"why me?"

"because you're the only one fearless enough, and tough enough I trust to do this. Plus it should keep you from disrupting the rest of our lives."

"……"

"it's not an option, your going to do it, Kora."

"he can't be 'fire fist Ace' anymore, do I have to deal with that as well?"

"I trust you can handle it."

"hmph, call for me when he's stable enough to feed himself, I'm not a babysitter."

"thank you Kora."

"not welcome, old man."

"I'm not old…."

A week or two later….

Again.

With the knocking on my door way too early in the damn morning.

I groaned and went to answer it.

To find Maddock supporting a half conscious Ace.

"he's all yours"

"I said I'd take him when he could feed himself."

"as of this morning he can feed himself. He's yours"

I glared at him.

He smiled, passed Ace to me and walked away.

Ace was heavy.

So I dropped him.

Then I regretted doing that to a half-conscious injured person so I picked him up and drag-carried him to a prepared cot in my living room.

I think I heard him groan a bit, if he did, I'm pretty sure I ignored it.

It took a few hours for him to become fully conscious, or at least conscious enough to feed himself.

I would only give him food that was non-messy and easy to eat though, because I didn't want to be cleaning food off the floor.

He ate a lot.

"where….am….I?" he asked. It sounded kinda painful.

"Isle of Truth, Grand line."

"Isle....of….truth?"

"yup, we know a whole bunch of truth's that no one else knows and that the world government would rather we not know, but, the Isle of truth doesn't register on any lock post and its pretty hard to end up here because of the odd currents surrounding the island. We're the secret keepers of the sea."

"……"

"your father found his way here once, so did a few scholars of Ohara, years and years ago."

"my…only…father….is…Whitebeard."

"blood father, true father, I don't care. Both of 'em have been here and both of them have died carrying the secrets they learned here."

"….Whitebeard…is dead?"

"yup, he died on his feet though, proudest old man I ever saw. Even in death they couldn't bring him down."

"…….."

I saw Ace clench his fists and grit his teeth.

"now, now. Don't go breakin' your spirit, your death already broke your brothers will, and with you two holdin' the fate of this era in your hands, we can't have both of you losin' it."

"Luffy… I gotta….go see…him."

"you can't. as a matter of fact you can't even be Ace anymore."

"..why..?"

"because Ace died on live TV in front of the world. Finding out your alive would only cause more problems. You have to become someone else."

"how…am…I…suppose...to…do…that."

"that's my job."

"….."

"just you wait and see, I'll make you into a great new captain. I already have a ship bein' built for ya'."

"what…about everyone…who knew…me?"

"they'll find you familiar, if you should meet, but they won't guess that you're Ace."

"what…about...my power?"

"I already thought of that. We'll say you ate the Mystical beast Zoan: Salamander fruit."

"I ..don't…..turn…into…a…dragon."

"we'll work on that."


	2. Chapter 2

**2. Blaze**

It took another week before he could walk on his own.

And a lot of me finding him in random places in my house.

So in the meantime I did a lot of yelling at him to sit still so I wouldn't have to go on an Ace hunt every time I came home.

I did learn that it's best not to leave him alone for more than two hours though.

So I woke up this morning and found my front door wide open, so naturally it was cold as a frozen hell since the sun was barely up, but ace was sitting on the front porch looking pleased with himself.

"congratulations, you made it more than ten feet without fallin' on your face. Next time close the dang door." I said dryly.

"I'm feeling much better, I need to start building my strength back up."

"feelin' better eh?"

"yup"

And to prove himself right, he got up and stretched.

So to prove him wrong, I slapped his chest.

He coughed a bit and drooled blood.

"oh, I can completely tell your in such good shape." I added sarcasm for emphasis.

He gave me a look.

I gave one right back to him.

"lets start with the simple stuff first. Your new name is Blaze, Captain Blaze. Easy to remember and didn't require much effort on my part."

"Blaze…." he said the name to himself. "Captain?…. Do I have a crew?"

"You won't be getting any crew off this island except me. When your strong enough we'll take off and start getting you your place in this Era."

"do you have to come? Really…"

"you should be damn grateful I don't flay you like a fish."

He smirked, then gave a pained expression and drooled more blood.

I pointed towards the cot in the living room.

"don't you dare bleed on my floor."

"I wouldn't dream of it" he replied sarcastically.

I grinned and closed the door behind him.

Well at least he's got some spirit back in him. If nothing' else.

Later that evening I found him half asleep against the table.

So I grabbed the scissors and gave him a haircut. He woke with jump and I nearly ended up cutting his ear off.

"Sit still you idiot!"

"what…are you doing…to my hair!"

"cutting it, what else? If you ain't suppose to be Ace, you really shouldn't look like Ace, besides I didn't cut it all off, I just shortened it a few inches, but hey, now you look a little less like a ruffian."

I handed him a small mirror.

"what….is in my hair?"

I grinned.

"I put some red and gold streaks in there, it fits you pretty well. And as a supposed crew member, I added some to my hair as well."

He gave me a funny look out of the corner of his eye.

I laughed and cleaned up the hair trimmings.

When I came back into the room a few minutes later he was fussing with his hair.

"it's….short."

"you'll live."

I grabbed the mirror from him and took a look at myself.

The red and gold looked nice in my dark brown hair, but they did seem to make my normally storm grey eyes a more smoky color.

He sighed.

I tilted my head to look at him around the mirror.

"what?"

"I'm worried…about Luffy. He always gets into trouble…and you said that there was something wrong…with him."

"You died in his arms, what do you think is wrong with him? But hey, he's made of rubber, he'll bounce back eventually. Beside's, I know where he is and he's safe enough for now."

"……."

"quit tensing up! You'll start bleedin' again. sheesh, we need to get you doin' somthin', fire practice or something."

"fire practice…" he muttered.

"you can make fire, so can you also put it out?"

"yeah, I suppose."

"good, light and unlight the five candles that are on the table one-hundred times."

"what?"

"I'm not making food for you until you do."

He glared at me.

Ah, food. The ultimate bribing tool for someone like him.

"get to it, you need to learn the truth's of fire if I'm suppose to tern you into a salamander. Lesson one, repetition. Also pay attention to what I'm gonna teach to you as you do this."

"hn"

He had already relit the candle for the seventh time.

" Now the purer a flame is, the less smoke it will produce and the more heat it will have, the hottest, or purest, flame is white, but blue is pretty close to the temperature of white, so its nearly the hottest. understand? The closer the color of the flame is to white, the hotter it is."

And I taught him different facts abut fire until he finished his candle exorcize, then I went to make dinner.

By the time I had finished the after dinner dishes Ace was asleep on the floor, snoring.

"well he's obviously fine then."

…

"nope, he can stay on the floor, I don't feel like moving him."

So I grabbed his pillow off the cot and wedged it under his head.

I tilted my head and looked at him.

He was sprawled out on the floor, one hand on his stomach, the other stretched out like he was reaching for somthin' and one knee propped up.

I shook my head and laughed at him abit.

Then I turned off the lights, changed and went to bed.

"Better sleep good tonight Ace, no… Blaze. Cas you got a busy day tomorrow."

I stared at the ceiling.

The truth of Fire…. Never thought I'd be teaching this to someone.


	3. Chapter 3

**3. Navigator**

"that's impossible"

"your attitude is impossible, you do it all the time with out even realizing it."

"and how exactly do I change the consistency of my flame all the time?"

"you use consistency to change the shape of the flames don't you?"

"….."

He shrugged.

"try again, since I'm withholding breakfast from you till you get this right, that means I starve too. So hurry up."

I stood at one end of my little living room table while Ace sat at the other, trying to levitate one of my candles while melting it as little as possible.

He's failing miserably.

There is a giant puddle of melted wax forming at his end of the table. Maybe I should of put a plate there instead?

"HA!"

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up. He had managed to get the candle to levitate about a foot above the table. Well, most of the candle…or more like half…..or a little less than that. But hey, progress is progress.

"OK, good enough, I want breakfast now so I'll just say you passed, sorta."

"how is this consistency thing suppose to help me improve?"

"forget the consistency, focus on shape, the consistency should come naturally with that. I need you to be able to shape the form of a dragon around yourself. You're suppose to be a salamander now, so we have to make you into one."

"couldn't we just jump strait to doing that?"

"I thought baby steps would be easier on you. Baby steps."

He glared at me.

I smiled and skipped into the kitchen to make breakfast.

I was about to set breakfast on the table in the living room when Maddock barged through my door, his obnoxious orange frizzy hair seemed frizzier than usual.

"Ah good morning!"

I glared at him.

"how are things moving along?"

I pointed at the pile of wax at the end of the table and then at the mess of scrambled eggs that I had spilled on the floor.

"ah! Good good! Where's Ace…oh wait now he is Blaze isn't he? Well then, where is he?"

"good question. Clean this up." I grumbled as I went on an Ace hunt.

To find him in a tree in the back yard.

Asleep.

I sighed and grabbed the lowest branch, hoisting myself up. When I finally reached him the knee of my pants had torn open on a broken end and I had leaves in my hair.

I punched him and he fell.

All the way back to the ground.

So I jumped out after him.

"breakfast is on the table. Maddock wants to see you." I informed him before I went to take a shower.

So three people where in my living room when I finished my shower. Maddock, and his distracting pumpkin hair, Ace, who in the time I was in the shower had burned a hole in my table, and mystery guy. Mystery guy was fairly tall, well toned (meaning he wasn't a complete weakling, but no body builder either) he had short red hair with long bangs that fell over some seriously gold eyes. Mystery guy was also seriously banged up. Like shipwreck banged up.

"your not dumping another wounded person on me." I warned.

"no, this is Kedan, he's a navigator. His ship seems to have been destroyed in the odd currents around our island, he's the only one who washed up on the shore."

"your point?"

"Navigator."

"uh huh"

"soo-"

"I'm not the captain! I'm the caretaker. Talk to Blaze." I cut him off.

"I think its fine" Ace piped up.

"your ship wrecked. Doesn't that mean you're a bad navigator?" I asked.

"I thought I saw a way through, we took it and the currents changed unnaturally around us, its like nothing I've ever seen, even in the grand line."

I sized up his worth.

"he'll do, I suppose." I grumbled.

"so you'll be our navigator?"

He looked at Ace and me.

"if a ship can't get in to this island, how would one get out?"

"secret."

"….." he thought about it for a moment before replying.

"fine. I'll be your navigator, where is the rest of the crew?"

"your looking at it."

He slumped.

"you've met Captain Blaze" I gestured to Ace, "I'm Kora, the Caretaker, and I need to fix your hair."

"huh?"

So two hours later Kedan had gold in his hair (and was still inspecting it every three seconds) and the three of us were off to go look at what was going to be our boat.

I thought it was a good idea till we actually started walking through town.

And the townspeople kept giving me quick glances to make sure I was really there, so they could get out of my way.

The reason for this is that I have a tendency to break things. It's unintentional, believe me. Most of the time. Well…at least part of the time.

I also get into fights a lot.

And steal things.

When we arrived at the shipyard I was surprised to see that the ship was already well on its way to be complete.

Then I realized that's probably because the sooner the ship was complete, the sooner I was off this island to places unknown.

"so that's our ship?" Kedan asked.

"yup."

"isn't it kinda big for three people?"

"we'll collect more crew on our travels."

We sat and watched the carpenters work.

"hey! Isn't that A-" the carpenter who was asking the question got punched by his buddy before he could finish.

"er… isn't that captain Blaze?"

"yup"

"can he show us his dragon form? Has he got it mastered yet?"

"eh…" I paused.

But Ace stepped forward like the fool he was and attempted to show off a dragon form.

I watched, surprised as the flames covered his body like a second skin and wings of fire grew…..and flared out, turning the nearest pile of lumber into a brilliant bonfire.

"so close" I slapped his shoulder with enthusiasm.

"a dragon? You're a dragon?" Kedan asked.

"its cas of a devil fruit." I mumbled.

"Devil fruit? Does that mean you can't swim?"

"yup! We should go now." I answered for ace and urged them to follow me as I hurried from the shipyard.

At least it wasn't my fault this time.


End file.
